Thursday, July 4, 2013

Kreket at Teatar EXIT - Go See a Wonderful Play

Almost two months ago, on May 11th I went to
theater EXIT with a friend to see Kreket, a play based on The Frog Prince by
David Mamet and I have been thinking about how to speak about this experience
ever since.

It is so weird now that taking pictures with one’s mobile
has become the norm, to come to the place where there is explicitly said: “Picture
taking forbidden” as it is in Exit entrance.

So I submit this ticket photo as proof:

We met a bit early so I had a chance to nose around and to
observe the “audience to be”. At one moment the doors to the stage opened and
we flowed like the flood to our seats. Soon, everything started.

This play, The Frog Prince, is not widely accessible.
Croatian libraries don’t seem to have copies of original and it seems the play itself
was never translated as a book. I did not read it before I went to see it and I
still did not manage to get a copy - but I would like to read it, so if you
have a copy you could part with please drop me an e-mail.

So, how was the play? Acting? Scene? Music? Experience?

It was wonderful and terrible in one great undividable mesh.

Acting was wonderful: Luka Dragić, Mia Anočić-Valentić, IvanGrčić, Bebe Na Vole - they were all great. I loved how they were expressive and
how their acting and playing was beautifully effortless - treacherous and sweet
- surely showing endless hours of preparation so everything could look this
smooth (congrats to Rene Medvešek, the director). Bebe na Vole, being the music
part of this arrangement, was excellent and his music and storytelling both
shined and were irreplaceable in progressing the story. Scene was absolutely
brilliant and I am at a loss for words how great Tanja Lacko did the scene and
Milena Medvešek chose the costumes. I am truly impressed and humbled with
ingenuity and clear-cut simplicity that gave wings to the story.

I spent almost half of the play soundlessly sobbing in fourth
row, with tears streaming down my face.

Why was that?

Well, there were many reasons and I think I’ll spell out a
few.

First, the ingenuity of the stage is unbelievable and it
becomes apparent in first few moments of the show.

Second, cast is magnificent and I’m always completely
disarmed by what wonderful artists exist this close, so close that it is hard
to believe that this people take off their costumes and walk among us every
day, going grocery shopping or paying parking tickets, and still act with such
force and believability they resemble more Gods than mortals.

And third, I was so shaken with reception by A LOT of the
audience it saddened me down to the bone. You see, this is a multilayered story
with multiple layers of both meaning and showcasing this meaning. Actors talk,
but they do not only talk. They move, they change costumes, they non-verbally
suggest and use lot of facial expressions to point out the discrepancy between
what is said and the meaning implied. It is so wonderfully multilayered that
you can rarely see something so elaborate and so well thought over. But it
really felt, there in the darkness of the theater, that I’m surrounded by so
many fools that are completely missing the entire story that this saddened me
immensely. Every time they laughed at inappropriate place (scene) it just broke
my heart. It was so Margaritas ante porcos that it physically hurt.

Disappointment by diagnostics - the harder they laugh, farther
from meaning (stupider, really) they are.

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Who is Derza Fanistori?

I spend my life trying to appreciate life and various experiences it provides. There may be some lamentations about said experiences here. There also may be occasional fictional fragments with or without carnal gratification innuendos. Feel free to e-mail me your complaints.